23-615: Johanna Elisabeth " Joke " Smit (27 August 1933 – 19 September 1981) was a well-known Dutch feminist and politician in the 1970s. Smit grew up in a reformed family of six children in Vianen . Her father was a teacher. She attended the Christelijk Gymnasium Utrecht and later studied French language and literature at the University of Amsterdam . She taught French at a number of schools between 1955 and 1966. In 1962, she worked
46-1225: A bi-annual Joke Smit-prize, a Joke Smit College, a Joke Smit Foundation, the Joke Smit-countries in Enschede , a Joke Smit Institute and the Joke Smit square in Utrecht . Various schools and streets in numerous Dutch municipalities were also named after her. A monument for Joke Smit was erected at the Alexandrine Tinneplein, near station De Vink in Leiden . Feminist magazine Opzij republished Smit's essay Het onbehagen bij de vrouw in their 2007 special edition. (in Dutch) Marja Vuijsje: Joke Smit. Biografie van een feministe . Atlas, Amsterdam, 2008. ISBN 978-90-450-1430-2 (3rd. pr. 2010, Olympus: ISBN 9789046708132 ) [REDACTED] Media related to Joke Smit at Wikimedia Commons Vianen Vianen ( Dutch pronunciation: [viˈjaːnə(n)] )
69-547: A certain degree of independence in their policy decisions. Municipalities are responsible for a wide variety of public services , which include land-use planning , public housing , management and maintenance of local roads, waste management and social security . After the Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010 three special municipalities (officially public bodies ) were formed. These municipalities function
92-471: A relationship with Jeroen de Wildt from 1978 onwards. Smit died of breast cancer in September 1981 at the age of 48. Smit gained a reputation as a feminist and an activist in 1967 when she published Het onbehagen bij de vrouw (1967) ( The Discontent of Women ) in the renowned literary magazine De Gids in 1967. The publication of this essay is often regarded as the start of the second wave of feminism in
115-410: A time by the crown and the alderman are elected by the municipal council, typically after each municipal election. The mayor is responsible for public order and is the first in command during emergencies, all other tasks are distributed freely between mayor and aldermen. The exact portfolio for each person differs between each municipality. Official municipal boundaries were first drawn up in 1832 in
138-441: A wide range of sizes, Westervoort is the smallest with a land area of 7.01 km (2.71 sq mi) and Súdwest-Fryslân the largest with a land area of 522.7 km (201.8 sq mi). Schiermonnikoog is both the least populated, with 972 people, and the least densely populated municipality at 23/km (60/sq mi). Amsterdam has the highest population with 931,298 residents as of January 2024, whereas The Hague
161-693: A year in Paris as a freelance journalist, writing articles for the Dutch newspapers NRC and Het Parool . She was then appointed editor and secretary of the editorial staff of the literary magazine Tirade . She started to work as an associate professor at the Institute for Translation of the University of Amsterdam in 1966. A year later, she became a member of the Partij van de Arbeid (Labor Party). She represented this party in
184-473: Is a city and a former municipality in the central Netherlands , in the province of Utrecht . It is located south of the Lek river . Before 2002 it was part of the province of South Holland . Vianen is made up of a historic town centre that dates back to the medieval period and was once surrounded by a defensive wall (parts of which still stand today) and moat, as well as more extensive modern housing developments to
207-566: Is the most densely populated with a density of 6,868/km (17,790/sq mi). As a second level administrative division municipalities are the third tier of public administration in the Netherlands after the central government and the provinces . The Netherlands is a decentralized unitary state , which means that the central government is supreme and delegates certain tasks to lower levels of government by law. The different levels do, however, make work agreements, which give municipalities
230-535: The Netherlands Since 1 January 2023, there have been 342 regular municipalities ( Dutch : gemeenten ) and three special municipalities ( Dutch : bijzondere gemeenten ) in the Netherlands . The latter is the status of three of the six island territories that make up the Dutch Caribbean . Municipalities are the second-level administrative division, or public bodies ( Dutch : openbare lichamen ), in
253-659: The Netherlands after a cadastre was formed. The Municipalities Act of 1851, written by prime minister Thorbecke , led to the disappearance of small municipalities. Throughout the years, less populous municipalities have been merged . They were either added to the larger neighbouring cities or multiple smaller municipalities merged into a larger new municipality with a new name. The number of municipalities reduced from 1,209 in 1850 to 537 in 2000; since 2024 there have been 342 municipalities. During this time, multiple mergers occurred simultaneously in large parts of individual provinces;
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#1732908621776276-529: The Netherlands and are subdivisions of their respective provinces . Their duties are delegated to them by the central government and they are ruled by a municipal council that is elected every four years. Municipal mergers have reduced the total number of municipalities by two-thirds since the first official boundaries were created in the mid 19th century. Municipalities themselves are informally subdivided into districts and neighbourhoods for administrative and statistical purposes. These municipalities come in
299-464: The Netherlands. In this essay, Smit describes the frustration of married women, saying they are fed up being solely mothers and housewives. Together with Hedy d'Ancona , Smit founded the feminist organization Man Vrouw Maatschappij (MVM) in 1968. Throughout the 1970s, Smit published articles on a range of topics: women's issues in politics, women's rights, emancipation for lesbian women, feminism and socialism, and education for girls and women. Smit's
322-503: The counts of Brederode, who acquired its lordship through marriage early in the 15th century. It formed a self-proclaimed sovereign seignory till 1795, including Vianen, Lexmond, Hei- en Boeicop and Meerkerk. During the Middle Ages, as a "free city," Vianen could be a haven for felons and escaped serfs. Of the three castles built during the town's history, Batestein Castle was said to be one of
345-672: The districts are called Dutch : stadsdelen , as well as Rotterdam , where the districts are called Dutch : deelgemeenten , consist of such formal subdivisions. The Hague , Almere , Breda , Eindhoven , Enschede , Groningen , Nijmegen , Tilburg and Utrecht have instituted Dutch : stadsdelen as well, although they do not have the same legal submunicipal status. For administrative use by municipalities and data collection by Statistics Netherlands all municipalities are subdivided into districts ( Dutch : wijken ), which in turn are subdivided into neighbourhoods ( Dutch : buurten ). These subdivisions have, in contrast to
368-603: The east, south and southwest and an industrial and commercial area. Vianen is intersected by two major motorways leading to the city of Utrecht: the A2 (Amsterdam-Maastricht) and the A27 (Breda-Almere). The municipality was merged with the municipalities of Leerdam and Zederik on 1 January 2019. The name of the new municipality is Vijfheerenlanden which is part of the Utrecht province. Vianen received city rights in 1337. Vianen thrived under
391-470: The most beautiful in the Netherlands. Its only remnants are a 17th-century brick gate and water-pump. Remnants of the old city wall are visible girdling parts of the old downtown. Vianen celebrates its city rights every year in October with a traditional horse market. Besides the horses there are also other activities on this day, such as a fair and market and traditional Dutch games. Municipalities of
414-466: The municipal boundaries were basically redrawn in these regions. In the 19th and large parts of the 20th century, municipal mergers were forced by the central government. This policy changed in the end of the 20th century; local support for the merger is now a large part of the decision-making process. The larger, merged municipalities are intended to handle an increasing workload because more public services are delegated from higher levels of government to
437-744: The municipal government of Amsterdam from September 1970 until September 1971. Smit also became editor of the party's scientific journal Socialisme & Democratie ( Socialism & Democracy ) in 1971. As a politician, she became affiliated with many committees, such as the Programmaraad TV (TV Program Council) for the NOS , the Committee Open School and the Emancipation Committee. Smit married Constant Kool in 1956 and gave birth to two children. Her relationship with Kool ended in 1974. She had
460-439: The municipalities. Another reason for municipal mergers is the assumption that larger municipalities are more efficient in performing their tasks than smaller ones. Municipalities have the right to decentralise themselves and form submunicipalities as an additional level of government. This right and the submunicipalities will cease to exist in the near future to reduce the number of levels of government. Only Amsterdam , where
483-470: The same as regular municipalities and are grouped together as the Caribbean Netherlands and are not part of a province. The municipalities are governed by both a board of mayor and aldermen and a municipal council. The municipal council , which is titled island council in the special municipalities, is elected every four years. The number of members in the council ranges from nine members for
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#1732908621776506-414: The smallest municipalities to forty-five members for the largest. It is the highest administrative body in the municipality and controls public policy. The executive power lies with the executive board , which consists of a mayor , titled lieutenant governor in the special municipalities, and multiple aldermen, titled island deputies in the special municipalities. The mayor is appointed for six years at
529-578: Was also known to the public for her progressive ideas about a new division in Dutch society between paid and unpaid labor. For instance, she argued that both men and women should work thirty hours a week to earn a living, which would consequently enable a division of a number of unpaid family- and household tasks between spouses. The feminist magazine Opzij awarded Smit the Annie-Romein-Verschoor-prize in 1979. Since Smit's death in 1981, various commemorations were made in her honour, such as
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